CAPT. THORNTON & HIS TROUPE MEET THE TROOPS, ROUND THE CLOCK.

Capt. W.P. Thornton
and Barbara Mercer.
Barbara joined the captain at the wheel
to take a last-minute peek at her
audience across the water on the troopship,
troopship before she braved the 
icy wind to go into her act.
The girls did not let the cold weather
affect their enthusiastic welcome 
 to the returning troops. No matter 
the hour or weather, the Welcome Ship  
 and U.S.O. entertainers were there
to greet returning troopships.
Click the image to enlarge.
Dated 10 Feb. 1946.
Original gelatin-silver print from the archives
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

WELCOME HOME

Capt. W.P. Thornton watched the goings-on
on his little ship with amusement.
The short trips he made in the
Welcome Home were routine to him. 
Capt. Thornton was a youth when he joined the 
Coast Guard, and has chased smugglers of Chinese,
including Pirate Kelly, and rum runners. Now he's 
proud of his new work and his traveling chore of 
transporting the welcoming troupe ––to greet 
the returning servicemen.
Unknown photographer. Gelatin-silver print 
from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

This huge sign built on West Point
to greet returning veterans was lit
at night with floodlights.
The Seattle Sportsmen's Club campaigned
for half the total cost, $9,000, and
the state paid the other $4,500. 
In the background can be seen the
old-time "West Point Light,
 which guided mariners into Seattle
since before 1880.
On a clear day, the sign can be seen
from Point No Point
nearly 15 miles away.
Click the image to enlarge. 
Gelatin-silver photograph from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Seagoing "riots" broke out when
troupes met troopship in Seattle 
 and delighted roars came from 
thousands of G.I.'s hanging
over the rails of their vessels 
when they glimpsed the U.S.O.
entertainers on the Welcome Home
boat sent out by the 
 Seattle Port of Embarkation. 

Always aboard the welcome
vessel were seven U.S.O. gals and
a Seattle woman, Barbara Mercer,
 a night-club entertainer,
who always accompanied
the troupe with her
baton-twirling act on the deck.
 The troupe also included 
an accordionist, a dancer,
and singers.

Source: Some text by Betty Cornelius for the Seattle-Times, Feb. 1946.

LAMP LIGHTER LOUIS at TURN POINT

Light Keeper Louis A. Borchers
(1867-1923)
Turn Point Lightstation,
Stuart Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Gelatin-silver photograph from the archives 
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Mr. Louis A. Borchers, born in San Francisco, was employed in the Lighthouse service for twenty-five years, twenty-one of those years at Turn Point Light in the San Juan Archipelago, Washington. 

He was an enthusiastic photographer of ships and marine scenes and had a collection of photographs that included nearly every vessel that regularly operated via the Haro Strait route. The international shipping lanes were right below him. The photographs included here were from the camera in the above photograph. 

Possibly a driftwood dugout canoe 
aboard Turn Point Light Station grounds,
planted with flowers by the keeper 
Louis A. Borchers
On station at this Light for 21 years
of his career.
Original gelatin-silver photograph by Louis,
 from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Photograph notated in ink
by the Keeper  
and photographer, Mr. Borchers, 
"Fog signal and light, Turn Point."
Stuart Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
He made this into a photo postcard
& mailed it from Prevost, WA, in 1907.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

He also had great beds of red carnations on the grounds surrounding the lighthouse and kept his friends liberally supplied with flowers during the spring and summer. With the climate zone of Stuart Island, he grew a Lemon tree, which must have shared inside quarters in the winter. The huge fruit from the tree he used in pies to delight his family and neighbors. He was also known for sharing strawberry desserts and for his skill in canning salmon. 

When he passed away his ashes were scattered on the waters of Puget Sound from the bridge of the Lighthouse tender Heather. 

Please note that the photos in this post are originals in the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society and not for lifting, thank you.  

MARITIME DAY ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 22 MAY

 

Left: Captain Les Reynolds in command of the 

 Army tug TATNUCK, the winner of Class A, 

First Annual Maritime Day Tug Races, 1949.

Right:  Captain Milt Ness,

skipper of the Army tug S.T. 860,

winner of Maritime Day Tug Race, Class B, 1949.

Seattle, Washington.

The amount of horsepower decides the

classification for entries.

Both vessels were to be out to defend their titles

in the Maritime Day races of 1950.

To keep the plaques tugs must win

three out of five years.

Click image to enlarge.

Original gelatin-silver photograph by

Joe Williamson, Neg. 4161-24 taken on

4 May 1950 from the archives of the

Saltwater People Historical Society©

"In 1933, Congress declared National Maritime Day to commemorate the American steamship SAVANNAHA’s voyage from the United States to England, marking the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean with steam propulsion, May 24-–June 20, 1819. During World War II more than 250,000 members of the American Merchant Marine served their country, with more than 6,700 giving their lives, hundreds being detained as prisoners of war and more than 800 U.S. merchant ships being sunk or damaged.
        Maritime Day is a time-honored tradition that recognizes one of our country’s most important industries. Each year, ceremonies and celebrations throughout the country recognize Maritime Day and the people our maritime nation depends on."
Source: The US Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration.

On 13 May 2022, The Seattle Propeller Club and the Port of Seattle had a Maritime Day breakfast at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront sponsored by Crowley.

INLETS OF PUGET SOUND with June

June Burn
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People History Society©

"Be as greedy of happiness as you please and charge it to my account! We didn't think, last New Year's Day, that January 1930, would find us playing around the inlets of Puget Sound with Vancouver, did we?
          Whidbey returns from Bellingham Bay, named by Vancouver in all probability for Sir William Bellingham, and describes it: "It is situated behind a cluster of islands, from which a number of channels lead into it . . . It everywhere affords good and secure anchorage. Opposite its north point of entrance, the shores are high and rocky, with some detached rocks lying off them. Here was found a brook of most excellent water. To the north and south of these rocky cliffs the shores are less elevated. . . where some of those beautiful verdant lawns were again presented to our view . . . the forests were composed of an infinitely less variety of trees and their growth was less luxuriant. Those commonly seen were pines of different sorts, the arborvitae, the Oriental Arbutus (is this the madrona?) and, I believe, some species of cypress. On the islands, a few small oaks were seen with the Virginiana juniper . . .
          Every smallest bay and cove and inlet has now been examined from Port Discovery down to Budd Inlet, back northward into Canada as far west as Texada Island. It is hard to conceive that so much territory has been covered in two months-– from the last of April to the last of June. It has been possible by working for several crews day and night, going short of provisions to finish a set task, staying out in the rain, and forever keeping at it.
          While Vancouver's party was up in Canada discovering and exploring and naming channels and islands, and the Chatham with Mr. Whidbey was exploring Bellingham Bay, the Discovery had taken a run over to the San Juan Islands to try to make a picture of them. But they couldn't make heads or tails of all those little coves and capes in the time at their disposal. For all general purposes to get them down as islands in a group was sufficient. Besides which, none of them seemed to think much of our islands, a lapse in appreciation. I find it hard to forgive Vancouver and Menzies – the rest were exploring with so much work to be done, probably.
          There is nothing to do now but to go on towards the west and during July and August, explore that vast meandering labyrinth of islands and tiny inlets and bays off Vancouver Island and up in the northwestern corner of the Sound country. The Spanish vessels join Vancouver's party and the four ships proceed together, ___?___portions of the country to explore, the officers of the boats having dinners and good times together.
          Point Marshall, Harwood's Island, and Savary's Island were named on the way. Natives told them they could get through to the ocean up that way, but, while they hoped it was so, they put little faith in the news as knowing too well the savage trick of telling you what he thinks you want to hear!
          In this neck of the woods Vancouver proves himself as able to describe ugliness as he had been able to praise beauty at Port Townsend not 200 miles to the southward: " . . . as dismal and gloomy an aspect as nature could well be supposed to exhibit . . . dull and uninteresting . . . dreary rocks and precipices that compose these desolate shores . . . Our residence here was truly forlorn: an awful silence pervaded the gloomy forest, whilst animated nature seemed to have deserted the neighboring country, whose soil afforded only a few small onions, some samphire, and here and there bushes bearing a scanty crop of indifferent berries . . . and not a fish could be tempted to take the hook." I think he is very tired. Worn out with so much beauty, so much exertion. If he had got here first and to Port Discovery last the whole story might have been reversed. I once heard a homesick girl from Kansas say she didn't like our islands ––they were so barren! From Kansas, mind you! I never did understand what she meant, and here is Vancouver calling them barren, too. Well, she was homesick and he was tired.
          Point Mary, Point Sarah, Bute's Channel, Point Mudge, Stuart's Island, Loughborough's Channel and Desolation Bay, where they were so miserably camped, were all explored and named. And Mr. Johnstone did find that hoped-for channel through to the great ocean. It was named Johnstone's Straits for him. On one shore of the straits, Natives were found possessed of muskets and knowing well how to use them. One of the deserted villages they found to be protected by a very ingenuous fort–– so well constructed that they would have doubted that Natives had lived there if they hadn't found their implements, bones, and old clothing. Several of the officers–– both Spanish and English–– examined the discarded clothing so closely that they had to go jump into the Sound immediately afterward. But that gave them no relief so they boiled all their garments, and presumably washed their heads in hot water to kill the myriad of fleas.
          Hardwicke's Island, Point Chatham, and Thurlow's Island were named by Vancouver. I suppose it was the politeness of the Spanish that permitted the English captain to do the naming. They were all working together, but I find no hint here in the journal of Spanish given names, around here. The Spanish vessels that leave of Vancouver as he starts through Johnstone Straits for the ocean. I wonder where they go. And if it is on this trip that they name our islands SAN JUAN ARCHIPELAGO.
          On through the "inside passage" the English ships go naming as they proceed, first the Discovery and then the Chatham going aground on rocks, until at last, they come out into____?_______ exploring inlets and naming them. Finally, they turn towards Nootka and Quadra, who, they have heard several times, awaits them very impatiently, arriving on 28 August 1792. Thus ends a more thoroughgoing examination of Puget Sound than we were to have until 1838, and so ends the most fascinating journal of exploration I have ever read. See you tomorrow. June."

June Burn. Puget Soundings published 1 January 1930.

"HARRY, THAT STUFF BLOWS UP!"

 

Steamer T. W. Lake
(ex-Annie M. Pence)

"The steamship Annie M. Pence, built at Lummi near Bellingham, had her share of bad luck while she served as part of Puget Sound's mosquito fleet for three decades. She was destroyed by fire in 1895, but the hull was salvaged and the ship was rebuilt at Ballard at the T.W. Lake Shipyard for Joshua Green and Associates and was named for the shipbuilder.
          As the T.W. Lake, she was sold to the Merchants' Transportation Company in 1905. She was modernized in 1916, fitted with a Barlow elevator, and two years later her hull was reconstructed from the boiler room forward and her wood-burning steam engines replaced by two 45-HP Fairbanks-Morse oil burners.
          Oil then was taking over as the principal fuel. The late Joshua Green told how he was convinced to switch from wood to oil as fuel for his steamers, the Athlon and Inland Flyer. In the H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, edited by Gordon Newell, the story is preserved.
          H.D. Collier, a former marine engineer and one-time secretary of the Puget Sound Chapter of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association had taken on a new job with Standard Oil Co. According to Green, Collier approached him with the idea of converting his wood-burning steamers to oil fuel, but the former master of the T.W. Lake was skeptical.
          "Harry," he said, "that stuff blows up!"
          Collier proceeded to don overalls and hook up an oil burner under the Athlon's boiler. Then he lit a match and dropped it in the tank much to Green's consternation. The match went out, thus proving that fuel oil was not explosive.
          All his long life, Capt. Green seemed a little surprised at Collier's success in convincing him, but he was not surprised that H.D. Collier went on to become president and chairman of the board of the Standard Oil Co of California.
          But back to our history of the T.W. Lake, now owned by F.H. Marvin, A.W. Sterrett, F.H. Wilhelmi, and Capt. Robert McCullough, known as Merchants' Transportation Co. Late in 1923, they scheduled the ship to carry 300 barrels of lime from Roche Harbor to Anacortes, but her bad luck returned. On the night of 5 December 1923, the veteran vessel was caught in a 72-mile-per-hour gale in Rosario Strait and foundered. She carried her entire crew of fifteen men to their deaths, including Capt. E.E. Mason and Chief Engineer Joseph Larsen. It was one of the worst disasters on record involving a ship of the Puget Sound Mosquito fleet."
          Words by James R. Warren for the Seattle Historical Society and published by the Seattle Pos-Intelligencer. 5 July 1981.

OH, YAKIMA WHAT DID YOU DO?

 

M. V. YAKIMA
Lopez Island ferry dock
with one deployed anchor
which damaged the hull.
Click image to enlarge.
Photograph courtesy of Lance Douglas 
28 April 2022

YAKIMA 
in tow of a Foss tug heading to 
Dakota Creek Shipyard,
Anacortes, Washington.
Photograph courtesy of 
Lance Douglas observing from 
 Blakely Island, WA.
30 April 2022.

 YAKIMA
in for damage repair at 
Dakota Creek Shipyard,
Anacortes, Washington.
30 April 2022
Courtesy of Lance Douglas